This invention pertains to body containers. It pertains particularly to body containers which are to be used for bodies which are either diseased, or have so much breakage or decomposition as to prevent normal embalming.
It is anticipated by the inventor herein that there are risks involved in handling deceased human bodies. Where the deceased person has been diseased, and especially diseased with a communicable disease, it is anticipated that there is some risk of communicating the disease to anyone handling the body of the deceased. Similarly, it is anticipated that, even in the early stages of body decomposition, there is an evolution of gases from the body which may contain components capable of communicating disease from the body of the deceased to persons in the area, which is especially applicable to persons preparing the body for interment or burial.
Another problem of potential risk occurs where significant decomposition of the body either has, or predictably will, take place before the body is finally laid to rest. For example, sometimes the body of the deceased is not found until enough time has elapsed that the body has decayed to an extent where normal embalming procedures are ineffective to retard the decay of the body enough to prevent significant evolution of gaseous products of decomposition until the body is laid to rest.
In still other cases, typically related to traumatic death, the body is significantly torn or dismembered, to the extent that normal embalming procedures are ineffective as far as temporarily preserving the body until the body can be laid to rest. Such traumatic deaths are most commonly associated with war, or with transportation accidents. Especially where the body is subjected to high impact such as with projectiles, or with explosions, the body is sometimes severely broken or dismembered.
In some cases of traumatic death, the body can be found expeditiously. In some cases, one or more parts may not be found at all, or may be found at a later time.
This invention addresses particularly all cases of traumatic death where significant breakage of the body has occurred, whether significant decomposition has begun by the time the body is found, or not. The problem to be dealt with in cases of significant body breakage is that normal embalming processes are ineffective to adequately retard the decomposition until the body is interred or otherwise laid to rest. This is because the circulatory blood vessels, which are used for the conventional embalming processes, no longer form a continuous circuit, at the breakage. Where significant body breakage has taken place, the circulatory system has also been broken to the point where it is ineffective for use in this typical embalming process.
Thus it is desirable to provide a way to handle bodies which will likely experience significant decomposition by the time the body has been interred.
It is especially an objective to provide some way to reduce exposure to gases emitted from the bodies of the deceased.
It is a further objective to provide, as an alternative to conventional embalming, another method of retarding the decomposition of the body of the deceased.